Second part Act 4 lore feels extremely rushed

I agree.

I dont know is the Act 4 worth the long waiting...It feel...short...In fact, it is short.

I spent roughly 2hrs to finish Act 4 (Inc. all the reading and some finding etc.)

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Waervyn wrote:

I agree completely. I'm a bit dumbstruck by the fact that we had to fight so many 'famous' lore characters in one expansion. As far as I know PoE has planned for 10 acts. Now they've kind of gotten rid of most of their interesting characters, like Voll/Shavronne/Doedre/Kaom, which could easily have been made in to several expansions.

Completely agree! From a writing standpoint, it was highly unfortunate to waste so many great characters that could have each been Act bosses. I'm very sad about this...

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mruuh wrote:

I also fully agree with OP. Compare end of act4 with end of act3, immersion-wise. In act3, you go through a beautiful, lush garden to reach base of a HUGE tower. The entrance itself makes you feel like a puny ant. Then as you ascend the tower, the level art conveys a great physical feeling of going higher and higher. Individual floors are getting smaller, later on parts of tower collapsed, exposing the interior to rain and wind. On the top of the tower, you really feel that you are so high and isolated from rest of the world below, feeling alone. Very nicely done.

End of act4, you just go through some generic flat corridors with generic bland organic walls, never really getting a feeling of how the areas are physically connected. or where you are progressing. If they swapped the level design around among the areas, people would barely notice.

Also, why is the inside of The Beast so generically organic?...

I absolutely agree with you. Very nicely put about the Sceptre of God progression. The Gardens, Sceptre, then Dom boss progression was amazing.

And again I will agree that the "inside Beast" areas were just so generic. Just generic flesh walls with awkward corridors...these zones are the first zones ever that I actually just want to fly through and get done as opposed to enjoy each time I replay. Sad day.

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Maciek14 wrote:

I agree that act 4 lore seems rushes. Apart from the initial explanation, there's nothing to inform the player about what the beast actually is...

Agreed. The whole Beast concept was mishandled. It was too ambiguous and didn't build much story tension.

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Maciek14 wrote:

I also can't believe it that nobody in Sarn gives you a pat on the back for killing Dominus! You've just killed the most notorious tyrant in that part of the land and it seems that none of the NPC in Sarn actually give a shit.

Very true! They really should add new lines to the few Act 3 NPCs after that...

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Telzen wrote:

Haven't finished Act 4 but I can tell you it does indeed tell us why we get those items from Kaom and Daresso. I believe most people just have an aversion to reading.

Yes, it tells you. But the explanation makes no sense. It basically says you need them to use the Rapture device. But why? And why are the portals so easily accessible? Who put the portals there? Is Malachai so powerless that he couldn't even try to stop you? The whole thing is just plain weird.

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Telzen wrote:

And why are the portals so easily accessible?

It would have been nice if the portals were hidden - until you completed some additional sub-quests to find items that would display them...

Just wanted to add that describing the beast area as a 'cathedral with a thousand eyes' was a huge overstatement. I didn't feel the cathedral part at all. More like a 'tunnel with a thousand eyes' really.

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CapitalPunishment wrote:

I think the problem is that GGG doesn't have a storyline plan moving forward. I feel they planned act 1 and act 2 quite well as a coherent storyline....but then act 3...bam...hi guyz im dominus I sent you here but your just finding that out now, well put some posts with letters in lioneye to cover the gap.

I think the entire storyline and lore were pretty well panned out during the time when the game was in open beta (and when Piety was still the final boss). Everything locked together and made sense. You can really notice that Dominus was implemented as extra content. They need to address this and properly integrate the character right from the start.

Lorewise Act 4 has a lot to offer. The least thing it does is that it makes people wonder and scratch their hand. Which is a good thing in my opinion. There definitely is some twisted sense to all the symbolism spread throughout the final act. I see a lot of elements returning that I appreciated in other games/comic series. The Kaom and Daresso "dreams" are really well done. One minor gripe is that they are too linear (just as most content in act 4). What happened to really random areas?


I am not going to fully judge the lore just yet as I haven't fully figured out everything myself. It could be pure genius or a timetravel clusterfuck. Time will tell.

Currently act 4 is a piece of clay. Good quality clay, that is still very rough around the edged but can be molded into a masterpiece if GGG so wishes.



@Mangeura: Nicely written. Wish I was as good with words as you. You speak my mind.

yeah. Act 4 fell a bit flat from time to time for me lorewise. Artwise.

The harvest is awful. design, layout, art.
Aqueduct/highgate beautiful.

I feel like there were a few rehashes and dropped plotpoints too.

cliched "blink monk" as our spirit guide. instead of having Yeena from Act2 come to Highgate to act as our guide.
The Lovers 2.0. I love the V.A. and writing.. but seemed odd after Clarrisa/Tolman.

The masters in general having no part in the beast's demise. Zana particularly.

Voll chilling in the lake bed for 300 years, with Highgate having no back door, or defenses. Visually would have at least expected the same kind of siege as the front gate of Highgate has.

What was Deshret's soul doing inside? I thought they were clear she did not enter?

I think I can explain the dream doorways a bit, and why they were there. Malachi's reverie machine. The portals to other worlds or dreams for the maps, is the same for Kaom's and Darreso's dreams.
They were likely used to fuel the Cataclysm, in a similar way we fueled the Rapture device.


Dominus vs Malachai. Was Malachai ok with what Dominus was doing?



Killing a Great Old One, seems to have had little effect on the world...
Highgate does have talk for you, although you get sent to the strand.

I kindof feel like the portal for the strand should be in Highgate.

I have no idea how long it is intended to be, before new acts are added. But I think more of an "ending" after each act might be a good idea.

Act2 being "to be continued" made sense. act 3 didnt have much but did at least have Dialla give a speach about how super cool you are. Act 4 for being the "end of this arc" seems kindof flat.

i dont think the lore is the problem, its more about the very linear zones/progression and how the lore fits into such zones. we have exactly zero zones like the axiom prison or the vaal pyramid in act 4, and such zones are better than just straight linear zones

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lazycalm2 wrote:

Good thing most ARPG fans don't care much about story then

But I did expect better rewards, like bunch of skill points.

The balance is WAAAAY off when compared to rewards.

I liked the Kaom part of the A4 lore. It flows nicely from the stuff you hear in Act 1 about Kaom taking his 500 warriors and heading off to follow some sort of vision, leaving the rest of the people behind.

Not as impressed with the King of Swords side. Didn't seem to flow nearly as nicely from prior lore.

I still need to read all the optional stuff in A4 to see if I can get a better handle on all the beast stuff. Especially what exactly happened to Piety, and how we ended up with those other three mages holding Mal's guts.